Accused 26 years on, head who had affair with pupil of 18 ‘after kiss in class on last day of school’
A HEADMASTER accused of kissing a sixth-form pupil on her last day of school 26 years ago has been hauled before a disciplinary panel.
John Tomsett, 54, now the head of a flagship college, was the girl’s english teacher and they embarked on a passionate sexual affair during the summer after she left.
His accuser, who is now in her mid- forties, is said to have reported the allegation following the death of her ‘protective’ father.
Giving evidence to the Teacher Regulation Agency panel, the woman described how mr Tomsett pulled her towards him as he sat on a desk in may 1992.
She said: ‘It was like my english literature classes were coming to life. He looked at me with so much emotion and expression and there were tears in his eyes and I really felt he wanted to say, “I love you”. We kissed, with him sitting on the desk and me standing between his legs.
‘It felt exciting and shocking all at the same time.
‘In my diary at the time I said he was not abusing his position, only his wedding vows.’
mr Tomsett – who earlier this year hosted a school visit by education Secretary Damien Hinds – was ten years older than the then 18-yearold and married at the time.
The tribunal panel heard that during that summer mr Tomsett picked the former pupil up in his car and they would go for walks at local beauty spots, where sexual activity would take place.
The woman, identified only as ‘Pupil A’, described her difficult home life when she began at the college in September 1990, and said receiving attention from mr Tomsett made her feel ‘special’.
She said he was ‘ very intense and had a wonderful way with words and language and was quite beguiling’.
mr Tomsett denies having an inappropriate relationship with Pupil A while a teacher at eastbourne Sixth Form College in east Sussex.
He accepts that a sexual relationship began in the summer when he was no longer her teacher, but denies this amounted to unacceptable professional conduct or conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute. Andrew Faux, defending, said: ‘The relationship took place after he stopped teaching at the school and was very much between people who were equals.’ mr Faux described two occasions in 2011, where the pair had sex after the woman contacted him.
The hearing was also told of a letter Pupil A wrote to herself in 1995, which she intended to open on her 40th birthday and which described a ‘summer of wonderful romance and passion’. mr Tomsett is a founder member of the Headteachers’ Roundtable, a school leaders’ think-tank.
He is understood to have taken a leave of absence from Huntingdon School in York ahead of the hearing in Coventry. The school was visited by mr Hinds in July and was one of the first to be selected as a Government ‘research school’ in October 2016.
The hearing continues.
‘A wonderful way with words’